Where

I've

Been...

M&T Bank:I started with the bank as a contractor. Contracting was a great way to learn about the organization; i.e. the culture, how things worked, the potential for growth and the health of the bank. Contracting as a Project Administrator in the Technology division, my team implemented Avamar backup software, enabling the bank to move away from tape-based back-ups. There were many challenges, yet our team finished ahead of schedule and I met colleagues who will be friends for life. Using this opportunity to network, volunteer my services and teach myself the various technology tools made it an invaluable experience.

Post-contract, an opening in the Credit division for a Business Analyst opened up. Having prior experience in the organization gave me an edge. The management contacts I made and the knowledge I gained provided excellent references and a skill set that set me up for success. From that experience, I propsed a new communications process and an intranet redesign for the division. My position was redefined and I was able to identify a problem and provide a solution that was badly needed.

Thomson Reuters: I came to TR as part of an aquisition and have to admit that joining an organization this way presented many challenges. TR is a huge multinational corporation with multiple divisions, each run independantly. My group worked under the Government division, delivering a product used in Real Property appraisal and tax collection. Because the organization was so large and the business unit so small, my day-to-day duties were far removed from upper management. This provided the opportunity to shape my responsibilities and develop client service strategies.

As the front facing resource for the legacy product we supported, my goal was to maintain a positive image, deliver service at the highest level and keep support and billable hour dollars coming in. A big challenge was that we had a product that was no longer marketed but still needed to generate income. This motivated me to explore new methods to distribute information, market our services and keep confidence high. Our business unit consistently turned a profit. Alas, being linked to legacy product does not bode well for future growth. Leaving TR was hard as I'd built rewarding relationships, but moving on was one of the best moves of my career.

Manatron Inc.: My association with this organization came about as a result of a buy-out. Having previously worked for a small company where the owner sold the business in order to retire, having a path to transition to a new organization was a boon. Conventional wisdom states that long job tenure shows stagnation and lack of growth, thus having a new employer enabled me to build a resume that broke-up my years of service. This was no easy feat -- not only did I have to interview in order to retain my position, the downside was that many valued colleagues did not make the cut or were eliminated through down-sizing.

The benefit of transitioning to a new employer in the same business sector is the ability to build on years of acquired skills while maintaining relationships with former business partners from other organizations. It became my job to reach out to our clients and let them know everything was going to be OK, as well as learning the culture and business practices of this new organization in order to help my long-standing colleagues navigate our new world. I was encouraged to acquire the tools and resources needed to best deliver services which meant adding to my skill-set.

Sigma System Technologies: Small is big. Long before it became "cool" to work for a small business, I learned that this environment provided the optimal way to have a "big" job. Hired based on sending an usolicited resume and instantly "clicking" with management, I basically "marketed" myself into a position with a small software developer that needed to focus on customer service but wasn't sure how. Given free reign to whittle down a large back-log of open support tickets, develop a training program, produce comprehensive documentation, training scripts, QA scripts and more, this position became a dream job. The magical part was that I could propose an idea and be given both the go-ahead and guidance to run with it.

While many of my contemporaries were concerned with aging out of the job market, the challenge I faced was that my colleagues were nearing retirement while I'd still have years left to work. For this reason, I never stopped grabbing on to new technologies and putting them to use. The company was eventually sold when the owner retired, but our clients stayed with us because we had delivered so many years of sound service and a reliable product.